There’s a lot of fake news circulating in regards to the COVID-19 virus. One of the crazier stories is that people believed you could catch the virus from drinking Corona beer, this is of course, completely untrue. Corona beer has nothing to do with the Corona Virus.
Another fake news story was that Dettol (the cleaning product) knew about Corona virus prior to the outbreak. People thought this because it says on the bottle that Dettol kills the “Human Coronavirus”. This if of course true it does kill the Corona virus (there are several types), but COVID-19 is a novel strain of the virus. If you want to read more about that visit the Dettol website who have explained themselves in full HERE.
Some other worrying news was around our pets being able to catch the Corona Virus or more specifically COVID-19 (This is the official name for the strain that has infected over 100,000 people worldwide.) We wanted to set out some of the facts here! The main one being:
There is only 1 reported case an infected pet globally and the dog is in excellent health!
Everyone will have heard by now that a Pomeranian dog in Hong Kong tested a weak positive for COVID-19. The dog did not show any clinical signs of the virus and is in excellent health so this is what we would call very limited information. There is also absolutely no evidence that our pets can be a source of infection to other animals or to humans.
What we do suggest is really good basic hygiene around your pet, especially if the COVID-19 virus is in your area. If you or anyone in your household has been diagnosed with COVID-19 it is suggested that they don’t have close contact with your pets and another family member care for them. If you don’t have a choice in looking after your pet then maintain excellent hygiene practices and wear a face mask if possible.
So just to recap on the facts:
- Keep drinking Corona beer if you want. You can’t catch the Corona virus from it!
- Dettol are not involved in a global conspiracy theory to sell more Dettol!
- Only 1 pet globally has been diagnosed with a weak case of COVID-19 and has shown no symptoms at all.
- There is no evidence at all that a pet can spread the COVID-19 virus.
- The best thing you can do is practice good basic hygiene and if someone in the household catches COVID-19 then they should keep their distance from your pet (and everyone else).
In short you have very little to worry about when it comes to your pets!
Some of the best information on this if you’re interested in reading more can be found here at the World Organisation for Animal Health.
If you’re worried about the COVID-19 virus in general visit the World Health Organisation here which has the most up to date information and facts. (Note one of them is NOT that the COVID-19 virus is caused by 5G!)
